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Lost Boys

This photo was taken at the beginning of the infamous "Underwear Mapping Day". This day was designed to be a stress release for the many days spent mapping with strangers and their idiosyncrasies. The requirement ... underwear had to be worn on the outside of the clothing. I'm posing with the group of guys known as the "Lost Boys Scorched Earth Mapping Team" The team earned their name the week before mapping the front range outside of Las Vegas, New Mexico. We were required to map in pairs in the wilderness for safety. We spent most of our day climbing up and down the rocky terrain and it was pretty rough going. The chance of falling, getting snake bit, or sitting on a cactus were the real dangers there ... outside of strangling your partner! It was towards the end of our week in Las Vegas and our feet were pretty raw from all the rock work ... and it was a rather unusual day for the desert southwest in that it was raining all day. Three pairs of guys decided to disobey orders and map together. They soon were working over a mile outside of the mapping area. Dr. Dave ... tracked them down and chewed them out and pointed them back to the mapping area and told them to split up. The only way to really see the rocks here were in the arroyos, but the ponderosa pine trees were also pretty thick in the arroyos as well. They left Dr. Dave behind ... regrouped and headed off in the wrong direction again. Soon they were grumping about their butt chewing and stopped to rest and when they did ... there was Dr. Dave resting on the rock above them. They got another chewing and sent on their way again. This whole scene repeated itself all day long and Just about the time they thought they'd lost Dr. Dave ... there he was again. They didn't count on his Vietnam jungle experience keeping them in check all day. The group ran across me and my mapping partner a couple of times that day and I showed them where they were currently at ... just shortly before Dr. Dave's arrival. The end of the day soon came, but for the rest of the trip ... they couldn't mention Dr. Dave without looking over their should first ... and he was usually there!

6 comments

Clickity Click said:

Bet those "boys" still dream about Dr. Dave ... thanks for posting Norm. :) (you're right pretty funny) at to read about it, probably not for the boys though. lol
10 years ago

Indycaver (Norm) replied to Clickity Click:

Oh ... they eventually saw the humor in it ... but not that day! :-) Dr. Dave had the biggest laugh ... each time he caught them!
10 years ago

Valfal said:

Funny story! Thanks for sharing, Norm!
10 years ago

Indycaver (Norm) replied to Valfal:

Thanks Valerie! :-)
10 years ago ( translate )

Shuttering Yukon said:

lol... good one.. my friend came to whitehorse with me once with all her 'underwear' on the outside.. she was wearing a slip and a bra over her jeans.. I would not but I did do the drive with undies on my head!
10 years ago

Indycaver (Norm) replied to Shuttering Yukon:

I can see you doing that! :-) We were in the field two weeks at that point ... and clean underwear was in short supply! I wore my last clean pair over my hat ... and once I got into the bush ... they were stowed into my backpack! :-)
10 years ago